Author
Topic: Do you lurk at XIXAX.com? (Read 4448 times)

Perhaps I shouldn't be calling attention to this, but I've been thinking about starting this thread for a while now.

I've been coming to this site practically every day for 7 years now. It's crazy to think about, but true. I find myself saying things like "No, its true, I saw it on xixax" to my friends in the 'real world.' I get most of my news, and develop plenty of my opinions while reading xixax. And yet, I'm not what you would call a "regular" here. I've posted 300-something times in 7 years. I don't know if its because i'm intimidated or what...actually I definitely wouldn't chalk most of it it up to intimidation, maybe mostly laziness. But nonetheless I love this website.

Recently I've started to look at the "users online" section of the stats down at the bottom. I'd see users online I wasn't used to seeing around here, but then notice they've been registered here for at least 5 years. It got me wondering how many of us "lurkers" were out there. I'm calling you out, goddamit. Have you been coming here for years? Do you feel guilty for not contributing much to such a fantastic website?

Its a strange feeling because I feel like I'm part of a community, but not really. I can read reviews and articles written by posters here and feel like, to a certain degree, I know the writer's opinion quite well.

I guess I'm starting this topic for a couple reasons. One is that I want to call out the other lurkers. The other is that I feel guilty for how long I've been here without contributing as much as others. I'd like to start contributing, and formally thank the "regulars" who do so. This really is the finest forum I visit on the internet.

I don't really count in the traditional sense, but I'm more of a lurker these days. Don't get to see too many quality movies 'cause what art houses are around are so far away now, and I try to devote my free time to creating. Cinephile and Neon Mercury are two other regulars that come to mind that seem to be just lurkers now, if that.

But: it would be nice to see some lurkers come outta the woodwork. I wish this place wasn't as much of a sausage fest, too, but you can't have it all. We seemed to have scared away most of the women who tolerate the testosterony goodness. Or maybe it (still) is just the nature of the medium. Who's the next Penelope Spheeris/Nicole Holofcenter/Julie Taymor/Sofia Coppola/Maya Deren/etc.? It'd be nice to know she graced this place once, 'cause, well, I've seen a lot of film forums, but none has the heart this place does (which I largely attribute to its roots in PTA, but I digress).

I lurk more than I post, though definitely not a full-on lurker, but half the time I will go to write something and then just delete because I reconsider what it will actually bring to the thread in terms of critical value.

I try to resist posting here because when I contribute to message boards it's either for humor's sake or it comes off as rambling. I never take too seriously what I put on them because it's just discussion, but then I see some people here putting out really well constructed posts and it encourages me to be a better man.

Maybe I should just write an essay on a film and then post it, not type it into this box here. Somehow, typing into a form here always makes me weary of the page locking up or somehow accidentally closing the page or deleting my text and then being too pissed to retype it.

Logged

"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

a friend of mine posted like three times back near the beginning and then seemingly vanished but has been reading ever since. i ask him why he doesn't join the discussions and he says we can't handle sarcasm and it will always turn into some kind of serious discussion on what that little bit of sarcasm really means.

“The myth by no means finds its adequate objectification in the spoken word. The structure of the scenes and the visible imagery reveal a deeper wisdom than the poet himself is able to put into words and concepts” – Friedrich Nietzsche